Browsing Date

July 2018

Technology

Brave Payments for Content Creators

July 24, 2018 • By

Last post I looked at the web browser, Brave. I have since adopted it as my default browser. I love that it is fast, private, and secure; blocking third-party ads and trackers. If you are looking to get exposure and experience with blockchain technology without trading cryptocurrencies, this is a great place to begin.
It’s not going to take you into the dark web, force you to download an entire blockchain onto your computer, upload content to an immutable blockchain or any other misconceptions that might be circulating. What it will do: give you exposure to one a clean interface, provide a user-friendly experience, allow you to receive and distribute BAT tokens within the Brave ecosystem. Along the way, you’ll have an opportunity to learn about two-factor authentication, private keys, and connect a digital wallet. This process is unidirectional, you cannot receive BAT tokens into your wallet and then transfer them out for trading.
Here is a brief excerpt from my analysis I did for Seeking Cryptos when Coinbase announced BAT as one of the possible additions, regarding the team and my experience to date.

It makes sense that this project enjoys successful user adoption and a proven success record to date (see roadmap). Brendan Eich (Creator of JavaScript and co-founder of Mozilla/Firefox) leads Brave as CEO. Brian Bondy, Browser Engineering Lead, has former experience with Khan Academy, Mozilla, and Evernote. Yan Zhu, Security and Privacy Engineering, is an EFF Fellow with prior experience at Yahoo, Tor Project, HTTPS Everywhere, and Privacy Badger. The depth of the team in all disciplines can be found on the BAT website.

For my fellow bloggers, video and podcasters, and other content creators, here is how you can take the Brave Browser experience a step further:

For those of you that have crypto experience, you can probably stop reading here. It is seriously the most seamless signup process I have experienced to date. Block.one and EOS should have hired the Brave team for building a token holder voting interface.

  • Click “Get Started”
  • Enter your email and verify
  • Enter your name
  • Set up 2FA (two-factor authentication) using google authenticator – Scan Barcode
  • Add Channel (big button to the left of your name) – Website, YouTube, or Twitch
    1. If you have a WordPress site, there is a plug-in. Brave will take note of it and walk you through step by step.

 

Add or setup an Uphold Wallet. Note you can do this directly from within the Brave Payment Dashboard. Fun fact for anyone new, Uphold has a useful Cryptionary on their site.

What’s next? Consumers of your content, when viewing it in the Brave Browser, will have an opportunity to allocate their monthly BAT to your website/wallet.

If you think I am missing a step or have any questions, let me know.

 

This post is provided for informational purposes only. Nothing herein shall be taken as legal or financial advice.

Disclosure: Author holds BAT tokens received through the Brave Wallet for educational purposes and use within the system. 


The Henry Raines Show, Token

Brave Browser Revisited

July 17, 2018 • By

Last week I stepped away from my daily routine, environment, and work. Of course, even a slow week in crypto generates plenty of news and often on Friday afternoons. Missing the crew, I stopped at the studio on my way back into town.

Coinbase managed to drop a short-list of potential cryptocurrency candidates that it may entertain making available on its platform. Basic Attention Token happened to be one of these tokens, which I have a general familiarity from earlier reads and uses.

What is so lovely about the Basic Attention Token (BAT) is that there is actual product that is useful to even those not interested or involved in cryptocurrency. BAT is to be used with the Brave Web Browser. I briefly used Brave earlier in the year but had a few cumbersome moments that I returned to Chrome.

In an effort to clean up and follow up my limited remarks on the show, I decided to revisit Brave. There have been significant improvements since I last used it and additional functionality worth highlighting. Brave is free to use. It is a web browser. Download it here or directly visit brave.com.

The Brave FAQs do a terrific job of explaining Brave Payments. The following is an overview geared toward noncrypto enthusiasts who may be interested in participating in the ecosystem and supporting the concept that makes this browser beautiful.

I understand the concept behind Brave and BAT to be more of a user driven advertising platform. Ideally eliminating the data mining method of inundating users with ads related to their recent searches. From their whitepaper, I recall an interesting piece was that it would be able to measure user attention based on active windows and reward publishers based on engagement.

The Brave web browser is designed to block third party tracking and advertisements. For example, if “golf” is included in my search in other browsers or on social media platforms; immediately ads begin to appear from golf suppliers or based on the websites that I visit, related advertisements appear. A secure and anonymous algorithm power the platform, so contributions truly are anonymous to Brave and all other entities.

One can elect the search engine of choice. I have been a DuckDuckGo fan since their inception.

Advertisers, publishers, and content creators can use BAT to pay for user attention.

Individuals are able to support favorite sites using BAT with the use of a Brave wallet found in the browser settings. Currently, Brave will provide 15 BAT to new users. The team has made it incredibly easy, literally a toggle switch and an exercise to prove humanity.

For those interested in continuing to reward sites, there are instructions on obtaining additional funds. This is a one-way ticket. Once BAT is in a Brave wallet, it can only be used as intended; to reward website publishers at the holder’s discretion. BAT cannot be earned, purchased, and transferred out of the Brave Wallet to be traded on an exchange. Use it or lose it. Tokens have an expiration (at least those rewarded by Brave here).

To reward content creators, navigate to preferences and payments. Browsing history appears in the payments section of Brave Preferences with the option to include the provider in the allocation reward.

Now that I have had an opportunity to revisit Brave, I am looking forward to employing it as my default browser. For content creators interested in exploring Brave, I suggest starting with the FAQs. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts can find additional trading and investing information at Seeking Cryptos.

This post is provided for informational purposes, nothing herein shall be taken as legal or financial advice.